CORRESPONDENTE
ORAL PARTICIPATION STRATEGIES IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM:
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT
por
Fabiana de Fátima Cipriani
Dissertação submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento parcial dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de
MESTRE EM LETRAS
Florianópolis FevereitX) 2001
Literatura Correspondente, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, para fins de obtenção do grau de
MESTRE EM LETRAS
Área de concentração: inglês e Literatura Correspondente Opção: Língua Inglesa e Lingüística Aplicada
Uiêda Maria Braga Tomitch Coordenadora
BANCA EXAMINADORA:
Gloria Gil
Orientadora e Presidente
Silvia Ritzmann Madeira Neves Examinadora
// Josalba Ramalho Vieira Examinadora
Acknowledgements
t would like to thank:
My advisor, Gloria Gil, for her dedication and patience.
The teacher I observed, for her kind attention, and to whom I am particularly indebted.
The group 1 observed, with my warmest thanks for having accepted me in their classes.
My parents and sisters, especially my Dad, for their support at difficult moments.
The “Departamento de Lingua e Literatura Estrangeiras da UFSC, for permission to observe one group from the English Course.
The teachers of the Pós-Graduação em Inglês e Literatura Correspondente - PGI.
I am deeply grateful to my fi'iends, and ail those who directly or indirectly contributed to the development of this research.
ORAL PARTICIPATION STRATEGIES IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM:
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
FABIANA DE FÁTIMA CIPRIANI
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2001
Supervising Professor: Gloria Gil
This study illustrates and analyses some patterns of oral participation strategies identified in the speech of the teacher and the learners in a beginner- level class of English. The patterns of oral participation strategies were observed help ttie learners and the teacher to stimulate and to increase the amount of speaking in English in the classroom.
The present study followed an ethnographic approach of research. Therefore, the data were collected taking into consideration the context where the data were collected and the point of view of the participants of the research being observed. In total, fifteen classes were observed, audio-recorded, video-taped, and micro-analysed aftenwards.
In Chapter 1, I review a number of studies in the area of interaction. In Chapter 2, I describe how i accomplished the research step by step, explaining the ethnographic perspective applied to this study. In Chapter 3, I describe and analyse the patterns of oral participation strategies identified and I finish the thesis by summarising the findings, offering some pedagogical implications and making suggestions for further research in the area.
RESUMO
ESTRATÉGIAS DE PARTICIPAÇÃO ORAL NA SALA DE AULA DE LÍNGUA ESTRANGEIRA:
UM ESTUDO ETNOGRÁFICO
FABIANA DE FÁTIMA CIPRIANI
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2001
Professora Orientadora: Gloria Gil
Este estudo ilustra e analisa alguns padrões de estratégias de participação oral identificados no discurso da professora e dos alunos em uma classe de iniciantes em língua estrangeira. Os padrões de estratégias de participação oral foram observados a ajudar os alunos e o professor a iniciar e ampliar a conversação em Inglês na sala de aula.
O presente estudo seguiu o método etnográfico de pesquisa. Sendo assim, dados foram coletados tomando-se em consideração o contexto onde os dados
foram coletados e o ponto de vista dos participantes da pesquisa em observação. No total, dezesseis aulas foram observadas, gravadas, filmadas e analisadas.
também a perspectiva metodológica etnográfica usada neste estudo. No capítulo 3, eu descrevi e analisei os padrões de estratégias de participação oral identificados e finalizei a dissertação fazendo um resumo dos achados, oferecendo algumas implicações pedagógicas e fazendo sugestões para futuras pesquisas na área.
Acknowledgements... ...iv
Abstract... v
Resumo... ... ...vii
Table of contents... ... ...ix
Introduction... 1
1 Chapter 1: Review of literature: classroom interaction and participation strategies... ... 3
1.1 Introduction... 3
1.2 Two theories underlying nrwst studies of second/foreign language classroom interaction... 3
1.2.1 Comprehensible Input hypothesis... 4
1.2.2 Swain’s Output hypothesis...4
1.3. Some studies on classroom interaction focusing on oral participation... 5
2 Chapter 2: An ethnographic methodological approach... 10
2.1 Interest in conducting an ethnographic study on participation strategies. 10 2.2 Research questions... 11
2.3 An ethnographic approach... 12
2.4 The context...*...14
2.5.2 Step 2 of data collection: video - taping and audio-recording....22
2.5.2.1 Description of important points observed in the classes recorded... 24
2.5.3 Step 3 of data collection: Different techniques of data collection used for triangulation... 26
2.6 Transcription, segmentation and analysis of data... 29
Key to transcription conventions...31
2.7 Summary of the chapter... 32
3 Chapter 3: A discourse analysis of oral participation strategies in the foreign language classroom...34
3.1 Introduction...34
3.2 Questioning...35
3.2.1 Teacher’s and leamers’use of questioning... ... 35
3.3 Requests for assistance from the teacher and self-repetitions...40
3.4 Humour strategies... ... 44
3.4.1 Teacher’s and leamers’ humour strategies... 45
3.5 Code-switching strategies... 54
3.5.1 Teacher’s and learners’ use of code-switching... 56
3.6 Topic choice... 67
Final remarks... ... ... .—74
Summary and findings... ... 74
Answering the two research questions... 75
Pedagogical implications... 78
Suggestions for further research... 79
Aftenword... ... 81
References... ... ... ... 82
Appendixes... 85
Appendix A - Triangulation of data...86
Appendix B - Activity tables...93
Appendix C - Complete transcriptions of the examples analysed...101
L ist o f Figures Figure 1; Classroom organisation... ... 16
Figure 2; Steps of ethnographic techniques... 17
Figure 3: Table 7 17/04/00; Activity table 7 from 17/04/00... 30
A second/foreign language^ classroom is a universe full of still not totally known and understood questions. The fact that there is still a lot to be studied about the complexities of this kind of classrooms makes this universe very interesting to explore.
According to Frank (1999), interaction and speech are closely linked in the language classroom, and they are of great importance to language teaching and the learning process. In other words, she suggests that it is interaction, i. e., communication in a broad sense, and speech, i.e., verbal communication, that make learning visible in the language classroom.
The present study examines interaction in a foreign language classroom from an ethnographic perspective. It illustrates and analyses examples of oral participation strategies Identified In the speech of a teacher and a group of learners during a certain number of classes observed.
The thesis is divided into five parts; Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Final remarks.
in Chapter 1, I review the literature related to classroom interaction and participation strategies.
Chapter 2 describes the ethnographic methodological approach used in this research. It also talks about my original interest in the issue, the research
' By second language it is undo^ood a language usually leamt in the country who-e this language is
spoken, and by forei^ language it is understood die language Iramt in a counby whwe this language is n(rt
spc^en. In the literature, the two terms are usually used together.
In Chapter 3, 1 define the concept of “oral participation strategies”, then illustrate and analyse some examples of teacher’s and learners’ oral participation strategies that were identified in the transcribed data.
In the Final remarits, I present a short summary of the thesis together with a description of the findings of the research. Aftenwards, 1 offer possible pedagogical implications my work may have on second/foreign language classroom teaching and learning. Finally, I write about the limitations of this research and offer some suggestions for further research.
participation strategies
1.1 Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of some of the literature related to the topic of this thesis; oral participation strategies in the foreign language classroom. First, I will summarise two important theories for the study of speaking in the second/foreign language classroom: the theory of comprehensible input by Krashen (1982) and the theory of comprehensible output hypothesis by Swain (1985), respectively. Second, I will report some studies of classroom interaction focusing on participation strategies in the second/foreign language classroom.
1.2 Two theories underlying many studies of second/foreign language classroom interaction
Most studies of second/foreign language classrooms are informed by theories of how language development takes place. Two main theories that lie behind many studies of classroom talk, generally called studies of classroom interaction, are the comprehensible input theory and the output hypothesis.
The comprehensible input theory was developed by Krashen (1982) and it is based on the difference between language acquisition and language learning. Krashen (ibid.) defines language acquisition as occurring when the individual is exposed to comprehensible input, while language teaming occurs when studying formal aspects of the language. Comprehensible input is understood as being the amount of “new” target language the individual is e)q3osed to and is able to understand and internalise, known as / + 1.
Krashen’s theory (ibid.) e)q3lains failure in language development, by suggesting that when the learner is e)q3osed to comprehensible input and still does not acquire the language, aspects such as “... motives, needs, attitudes, and enrotional states ...” (p. 39) may interfere in the acquisition process preventing understanding and intemalization, thus a relaxed atmosphere in the language classroom is important to make learners "relaxed and motivated” for acquisition (p. 40).
1.2.2 Swain’s Output hypofliesis
Swain’s output hypothesis (1985), on the other hand, emphasises the importance of not only comprehensible input but also output for language acquisition. According to Swain (1985), output assures that the learner acquires high levels of grammatical accuracy as the learner has the opportunity "... to try
According to Swain (1985), “... acquisition of higher levels of grammatical, discourse and sociolinguistic competence is dependent on opportunities for “pushed output”, i. e. , production that is characterised by precision, coherence, and appropriateness (p. 252)”. By “pushed output”, Swain (1985) refers to the learner’s need for meaningful use of his/her utterances with increasing lexico- grammatical accuracy.
1.3 Some studies on classroom interaction focusing on oral participation
The study of oral participation strategies are considered to be one important aspect of the field of second/foreign language classroom interaction. Tsui (1995) stresses the innportance of studying classroom interaction’ by suggesting that “in the language classroom, be it first, second or foreign language, classroom language and interaction are even more important because language is at once the subject of studying as well as the medium for learning,... (pp. 11-12)”.
According to Tsui (ibid.), the most important component of classroom interaction is teacher talk which “ ... not only takes up the largest portion of talk but also determines the topic of talk and who talks. It is therefore a very important
‘ The study of classroom interacticm has been one of the main concerns of Aj^lied Linguistics in the last
forty years. It is bey<md the sc(^e of this thesis to explore this subject in a oomprdiensive way.
comprehensible to learners or wrfien no response from them is received.
Tsui (ibid.) also suggests that learners answer the teacher’s question depending on the type of question that is asked. She defines the two main types of questions as: display questions and referential questions. According to Long and Sato (1983), display question entice learners to give specific answers related to \A^at has been studied in class, whereas in referential questions, learners have greater freedom in answering the question because the teacher does not require specific or factual answers.
Feedback on learners’ responses and error treatment are two closely
related aspects also considered very important for classroom interaction by Tsui (1995). Learners feel more secure of having understood the teacher or having answered correctly the questions if they are offered constant positive feedback fi^om the teacher. In other words, the way the teacher provides feedback regarding errors may help learners to participate in class;
A teacher who (XHistantly provides negative fe^badc is tound to create a sense of failure and frustration am<»ig students, and will inhibit student contribution. On the other hand, a teacher who values every contilbutlon and pnwides encouraging feedbsK* is much more likely to get students motivate to team and to participate in dass, and vwll help to create a warm social dimate In thedassroom. (Tsui, 1995, p.43)
Some other second/foreign language classroom interaction studies have already focused on different types of oral participation. Long (1983) for example,
themselves clear, called modified interaction. Long (ibid.) has identified different types of modified interaction such as comprehension checl<s, clarification
requests, self-repetition or paraphrase. Comprehension checks are used by the
teacher in order to ensure understanding by the learner; clarification requests are used by learners when understanding was not clear and self-repetition occurs when the sentence is repeated by the teacher.
Neves (1995) also centered her study on interaction, and tried to identify “the level of negotiation of meaning promoted by different tasks (p. 90)” in the foreign language classroom. Negotiation of meaning (NM), refers to moments when speakers, due to the need and wish to understand each other, “modify and restructure their discourse (ibid, p. 02).”
Code-switching can be also considered a special type of participation
strategy in Neves (1995). Code-switching in her study, was understood to mean the two types of codes used interchangeably in class: from Portuguese to English, and fi'om English to Portuguese. The leamers, in her study, made use of code- switching mainly to deal with the asymmetry of the classroom discursive event.
Braga (2000), in her studies of the EFL classroom, identified the use of
humour in the foreign language classroom. The strategy was used by both the
learners and the teacher and fosters participation by, for example, helping participants to avoid uncomfortable niioments.
Following a similar perspective, Dalacorte (1999), identified turn-taking strategies in a Foreign language classroom. By making use of a quantitative, as
- Turns asked by the teacher or a learner to answer any question. - Self-initiated turns to answer questions.
- Self-initiated turns related to doubts or difficulties. - Self-initiated turns to introduce a topic or a comment. - Turns requested for corrections.
- Turns related to interruption and or overlapping.
- Turns requested to participate in the re-production of activities in pairs or in groups.^
Therefore, another aspect of great importance for participation is “...the turn-allocation behaviour of the teacher and turn-taking behaviour of the students (Ibid., p. 19).” Some studies, such as Seliger (1977), have investigated why some learners are not naturally open to turn-taking behaviour in language classrooms. According to Seliger (ibid.) teachers may have two different types of learners in class; the ‘high-input generators’ (HIG) and the ‘low-input generators’ (LIG). The first type is characterised as being very active in class, interacting and causing others to practice the target language with them, therefore generating input from other people. The second type is not highly participating, and avoids speaking. This type of leamer presents a difficulty in generating input from other people.
Although there is still no evidence that proves that language achievement is closely related to the amount of participation the leamer has in class, these studies have shown that oral participation is believed to be very important for language improvement in the second/foreign language classroom. Furthermore, in spite of the many studies like the ones by Long (1983), Tsui (1995), Ellis (1992) which speculate and investigate, for instance, on the relationship between interaction and linguistic development in the second/foreign language classroom, the real connection between them has not been revealed yet (Ellis, 1992, p. 91).
These studies in the area of second/foreign classroom interaction have provided some basis to theoretically support my research. It is important to point out that all of them stress the importance of understanding how oral participation works in the second/foreign language classroom and its value for the learners’ second/foreign language development.
I will begin the present chapter by explaining why I decided to study participation strategies through an ethnographic approach. Then, I will explain the
reason why t had to delinnit the original research questions used to guide the research data collection. Third, I will define ethnography and provide an overview of the ethnographic approach used in this research. Fourth, I will present a view of the context of the classroom observed. Fifth, I will describe the ethnographic procedures used in this research with a descriptive account of the steps followed in order to accomplish the fieldwortc. Finally, I will describe how I segmented the data and provide the transcription conventions.
2.1 Interest In conducting an ethnographic study on participation strategies
My interest in studying classroom participation strategies arose through reading one study by Tsui (1996) which vras based on the observations of thirty- eight teachers of English of their own classes in Hong Kong. These teachers video-taped or audio-recorded their own classes for about four weeks in order to identify one specific problem. Over seventy percent of these teachers identified
getting teamers to participate orally in class as one o f their main difficulties. Tsui
(1996) reported on the teachers’ perceptions of the probable causes for the learners’ reticence to speak and their attempts to solve this problem.
One intriguing aspect of Tsui’s work was that the learners presented a similar pattern of behaviour to one I sometimes have noticed in my own classes: the fact that some learners participate more and some learners participate less. At the time I read the article, I wondered whether I would find the same patterns of behaviour with learners and teachers in Brazil, too, and especially what strategies teachers in Brazil could use in order to achieve more participation in the classroom. Therefore, I decided to focus my research on participation strategies by following an ethnographic approach {Frank, 1999), more specifically, I wanted to find out whether it was possible to distinguish pattems of participation strategies related to the learners’ and the teacher’s behaviours within the context of a real English class in Brazil.
2.2 Research questions
This study aimed originally at describing participation strategies as the result of actual negotiation between the teacher and the learners in an English language classroom. Participation in this research is understood as “taking place when the teacher and the learner are engaged in a teaching-leaming situation” (Gil, personal communication, January, 2000). Having begun the field work, I realised that it would not be possible to identify all the strategies used by both the teacher and the learners In class in such a short period of time Therefore, due to time limitations, I have narrowed down the scope of my thesis, and decided to focus on the observed pattems of oral strategies that were used in the class by the teacher and leamers to foster participation.
The two questions proposed to be answered in this worl< are the following:
1 What strategies does the teacher use to make learners participate orally in the EFL classroom?
2 Do all learners make use of oral participation strategies? And if so, what strategies do they use in order to help the teacher establish the socially constructed event?
2.3 An ethnographic approach
As mentioned t>efore, the present study follows an ethnographic approach which means that data from observation and notetaking, video-taping and audio recording, as well as data specifically collected for triangulation were obtained from a foreign language classroom and analysed in the light of the “culture”^ built during the classes’ everyday routine.
According to Carolyn Frank (1999), who considers classrooms as cultures, ethnography is “the study of culture”, therefore, an ethnographic perspective given to a study of the classroom enables the ethnographer to have a better understanding of the culture built during the school time the teacher and learners spend together (p. 1). The ethnographer’s aim is to try to understand and identify
‘ “Culture” is a term widely used by Frank (1999) who, quoting Michael Agar (1994), defined it as “ ...
something those pec^le “have”, but it’s mwe dian that.... It’s also what happens to you wiiai you encounter
differajces, beccwne aware of something in yourself, and work to figure out >\iiy the diflferaices appeared.
Culture is an awareness, a consciousness, wie that reveals the hidden self and qjens paths to other ways of
being. (20) (p. 2)”.
the singular patterns created in the classroom, which are so ordinary that they usually become invisible.
Frank (ibid.) states also that the role of the ethnographic observer"... is to understand and reveal these implicit patterns and routines (p. 3)”. Once inside the classroom, the observer is required to observe impartially without letting his/her own thoughts and views influence his/her understanding and identification of the phenomena. As a result, the ethnographic study could be defined as a descriptive reflection on the reality of the classroom observed
According to Tsui (1995), an ethnographic study:
Firstly, ... investigates an event or a situation from the participant’s perception rather than from an outsider’s interpretation of the event. Secondly, it is empirical and naturalistic. Both participant and non participant obsen/ations are used to acquire firet-hand accounts of the event in natural settings. Thirdly, the investigation is holistic. It tries to construct a description of the total event within its context in order to find out the complex interrelationships among ttie elements in the event. Fourthly, it is eclectic. A variety of data collection techniques is used so that data collected in one way can be cross-checked with data collected in another way (p. 107).
By describing the ethnographic approach in the form of steps, Tsui (ibid.) better clarifies its complexity. Similarly to Frank (1999), she also comments on the importance of taking into consideration the view participants have of the events in class.
2.4 The context
The follovwng sections of this chapter will provide descriptions of the context where the research was carried out, the different steps followed using different techniques of data collection, and the way in which the data was segmented and transcribed. Finally, Chapter 3 will provide an account of the results of the analysis in regard to the patterns of participation from an ethnographic perspective.
The collection of data was carried out at the Extracurricular English Course at UFSC. Every class at the Extracurricular Course lasted ninety minutes. I observed and audio-recorded a total of twenty-seven hours of classes of a particular group, during the months of March, April and May of the first semester of the year 2000.
The group English 1B was chosen, for several reasons. First of all, it was a beginners’ group, an essential requirement for the kind of research I wanted to carry out. Since my focus of investigation was oral participation strategies, a group at an initial stage would allow me to observe not only what strategies they were using to participate orally in the activities but also how they were learning to use them. The other reasons were that the group presented certain positive characteristics: it was a group of a reasonable size, and it was conducted at a time which I could make the collection of data.
It is important to emphasise that learners at this level are not e>q3ected to speak fluent English. Their oral production in the language Is limited, but they are
able to formulate some complete sentences and to communicate verbally in English.
When I began the collection of data there were seventeen leamers, including adolescents and adults: 7 male and 10 female. During the time I was observing the group, there was a drop out rate of 11%.
The textbook used at the Extracurricular Course at UFSC was New
interchange - English for International Communication by Jade C. Richards with
Jonathan Hull and Susan Proctor. However, at this level, IB, they studied half of the book only, from units 13 to 16, as the first nine ones had already been studied a tlA .
A TV, a VCR and a CD player were available in the classroom as didactic resources. The teacher’s desk was positioned in front of the learners’ desks, next to the TV and VCR, and at the opposite side of the window. The desks were positioned in the fonri of a semicircle. It was almost impossible to have the group sitting in a circle, due to the number of learners in class. This room also had a problem concerning the noise in the corridor of the building. The door had to be kept closed most of times.
The teacher also made use of the language laboratory once while I v\^s observing the classes and taking notes.
I present below a picture of the class organisation that includes also the tripod.
Figure 1: Classroom organisation
The teacher I observed is an experienced teacher In the area of EFL teaching who has been a teacher for about six years. Also, she had recently obtained a Master’s Degree at UFSC, which made me feel more confident of her understanding of my position as an ethnographic observer in her class.
2.5 Data collection: 3 steps of ethnographic techniques
The data collection was carried out in three steps. During each stage different ethnographic techniques were used.
During Step 1, observation and notetaking for six classes was earned out. This step lasted three weeks. During Step 2, the video-taping and audio-recording of nine classes was undertaken. Step 3 was the triangulation part of the collection of data in which included Interviews, reports and other written documents. Figure 2 illustrates these steps.
Figure 2: Steps of ethnographic techniques.
Step Data Collection Date
Stef) i Observdtioit and Notetaking 27703 -12/04
Step 2 Vkteo-taping and aiKiio-
reconding
17/04 - 24/05
reports
Interview with the teacher 14/06
E-mail sent by the teacher 25/06
Conversation with leamers 2Ô/06
The following subsections will provide a descriptive account of how these steps were conducted.
2.5.1 Step 1 of data coiiection: observation and notetaking
Before initiating the observation of the classes, I (x>ntacted the teacher and the group on March 22nd and formally explained to them I had an interest in
collecting data for some time in their classes. The teacher agreed with no hesitation and there was no refusal from the part of any learner.
During the first three weeks I tried to get to know the learners and the teacher better and make them familiar with my presence in the class. The group accepted me at once, but at the beginning of the observation and notetaking phase, I felt that some learners were observing me as well. They seemed to be apprehensive at my presence there, so 1 tried to establish a friendly relationship by coming early to the classes in order to allow some extra time to chat with some of them or take part in some of the activities during the first classes. However, my position as an ethnographic observer was limited to just observe them. Taking part on activities in class would imply in my interfering in the cun^ent process of the class.
I observed the first class on March 27th, 2000. During the observation step 1 sat on the first chair next to the door and the wall. The first class observed started with a correction of an exercise on the board that the learners had done at home. During this activity 1 was amazed by the degree of participation of some learners who spoke spontaneously, answering the teacher’s questions, thus really contributing to the activity. In that class, I could also notice three very quiet learners, who hardly gave any oral contribution.
On March 29th, 1 observed and took notes of the second class. I felt a little better as it was the second time I was there. I could, at this time, perceive much more than 1 had done in the first class. I noticed that the teacher, for example, used some special ways to help the students, but I was not sure, 1 could consider “these ways” strategies yet. The impression I had was that in many cases the
teacher was concerned with saving the learners’ laces^ (Braga, 2000) whenever the learners did not know how to say something in English.
At that time, t could feel a friendly atmosphere in the class but i could not figure out how it was being developed, i.e., whether by the teacher’s initiative or the learners’ natural attachment to the teacher’s sympathy towards them. Later on, when talking to the teacher, she told me that usually in the beginning of the semester she trained the group to be friendly, to give support to each other, to form a “learning community”. She was very much concerned with keeping a good relationship with the learners in class, by keeping a good atmosphere in order to make them feel confortable to speak. She had also promoted opportunities for them to know each other a little since the beginning of the semester.
There were often moments when a learner wanted to say something but did not know how. The teacher would then ask the others to help him or her to speak in English or gave him/her encouragement to complete the utterance vwth her assistance. The learners also offered frequent support to each other, such as a little smile or a joke.
The use o f Portuguese seemed to be allowed at certain moments, and the learners seemed to know the boundaries of when they could/could not speak in Portuguese. However, whenever they crossed the limits, the teacher would have them return to speaking in English. Making an effort to speak in English always seemed to be part of the culture present in class, not only on the part of learners who displayed more difficulties in expressing themselves in English, but also from
^ I use “saving tiie learner’s fece” in the context of this text to ejq>lain the mcHn^ts where the teach«-
seemed to be concerned with the leama-s’ well being in frcmt of the (rth»s, because she seemed to be trying
to protect the leamo-s frOTi feeling ridiculed. (See, Braga (2000) fw more infwmation about fece saving).
the ones that were highly participatory. Sentences such as “Como é que se diz, eu não sei dizer “xxxx” em inglês” or “Como é que é “xxxx” em inglês? were frequently used by some leamers to request help in order to continue speaking English.
During the third class observed, on April 3rd, I realised that the use of Portuguese in class could be considered one important strategic tool. For enojuraging participation in the classroom. At that time, I was not sure of the kind of strategic categories I would take into consideration for my research, but code
switching came to my attention at that moment. The teacher was very strict
concerning the use of Portuguese in class, which was allowed, but with limitations and at special times only.
Furthermore, the teacher used gestures and facial expressions to communicate with the group, sometimes rather severe, others supportive and kind. There was a moment, one leamer made a comment about the teacher’s expressive way of looking when talking to her after the class. He said she had a very expressive way of looking at them in class and by the way she looked at them they knew whether they had accomplished the task succeissfully or not.
The teacher was constantly praising the learners, what was a very kind way to give them more encouragement and confidence. The learners needed a constant comment or evaluation from the teacher after their attempts to speak in English, and there were moments when she would relieve the class from the stress of a hard task by praising the class as a group.
* The statements in Portuguese above could be translated into English like this: “How do you say, I dm’t
Many times she tool< advantage of opportunities that appeared in class to introduce a little humour. She was often playing jokes, for example, making a short comment such as, “yo<J have to study”, when they erred on something that was very easy. Learners laughed a lot and the atmosphere was very relaxed in class.
During the third class, the learners played a game and I could observe that the less participatory learners did not contribute much during that. As far as I could observe, the attitude of these particular learners during the game was that they did not seem to be very motivated to play. During this game, the learners who were more involved in turn-taking were the same ones who would normally take more turns during regular class activities.
After these three classes I felt that the learners were more accustomed to my presence so I decided to start bringing the video camera in order to make the learners used to this addition to the classes. During the following three classes the camera would be turned off and positioned next to the TV set, to the left side from the door and opposite the window (see Figure 1, p. 16)
On April the 5th, the dass had a visitor: Ricky, an American who came to talk to them about exchanging private conversation classes. On this occasion, the learners in general were highly motivated to speak, and they had also a targe amount of listening practise.
The teacher took advantage of Ricky’s visit and started the next class, April 10th, by talking about him. She asked learners about their irr^ression of Ricky, what they felt regarding his English and if they had understood his speech. Most learners pariiicipated orally in the talk giving their personal opinions on the
experience. I was surprised by her initiative and found that very interesting. I noticed that leamers were very enthusiastic and seemed to be enjoying the experience.
On April 12th, the teacher e)q3lained the topic of “contrasting ideas” by collecting examples from the learners and writing them on the board. The learners seemed very secure of themselves and enthusiastic in contributing to the explanation in that way. This was a situation which was repeated later, and where I could observe high and spontaneous oral participation from the learners each time.
All in all, once I was sure the learners and the teacher were ready to be filmed, I talked to her and said I would like to start video taping. The filming and recording started on April 17th and finished on May 24th.
2.5.2 Step 2 o f data collection: video - taping and audio-recording
The second step of the collection of data comprised the video taping and audio-recording of classes. It initiated on April 17th and finished on May 24th. On the whole, I recorded nine classes during five weeks. Although I had planned to observe and film about fifteen classes, 1 observed and filmed seventeen classes, including the two ones 1 replaced the teacher during one week when she was absent. This interval ft^om the 24th to the 26th of ^ r i l allowred me to get to know the class better, to get closer to them.
Once I started filming, 1 noticed the classroom was a little problematic for filming due to its reduced size. The position 1 had to leave the camera would many
times not provide a good filming due to the light coming from the window. The camera had to remain positioned at the left side of the door so as to be able to catch some of the teacher’s and the learners’ actions. I could not film everybody in the class at some moments. So I decided to lead the filming in two ways; one where I would film the class holding the camera and the other where I would use the tripod.
Thus, the second step of the collection of data was earned out by two means; first, by filming while holding the camera, and second, by filming while leaving the camera on the tripod. In the first way, I could point the camera to the direction I wanted and, as a result, had a better view of the events happening in the classes. In the second way, there was no command of the filming so I had a view of the classes from only one fixed perspective.
The audio-recording was done at the same time as the filming. During the audio-recording some learners showed a willingness to help change the tape for me when one stopped or needed changing. On the first day of filming, there was a technical problem with the tape recorder, so I do not have the first class recorded on cassette. I have all the other classes audio-recorded but they were not of much use during the transcriptions due to the bad sound quality.
There is no evidence from the classes recorded of any change of behaviour on the part of the learners or the teacher regarding my use of one technique or the other. The filming technique which proved to be most effective was when I was holding the camera and was able to capture a major register of the events taking place in the classes. In that way, I managed to acquire better data for my work.
2.5.2.1 Description of important points observed in tiie classes recorded
The first three classes recorded on the 17th and 19th of April and on the 3rd of May, were filmed while holding the camera. The following three classes were filmed with the camera on the tripod, on the 8th, 10th and 15th of May. The last three classes were filmed taking in consideration the categories of activities I had already thought to be of Importance for my work. I filmed the most important sections of the classes for my work holding the camera while less important ones were filmed with the camera on the tripod.
On the 17th of /^ ril, I filmed and recorded the first class. After the observation, I still did not have a clear idea of what I was going to use for my research, so on this first day I tried to film both the teacher’s and learners’ actions simultaneously, and continued using this procedure for the following two classes.
The learners appeared to be a bit anxious during the first filming and recording of the class, so I talked to the teacher about the possibility of It being too soon to start filming. She felt that they had been somewhat anxious too, and suggested that I stand while filming as they seemed to be more at ease with this way of filming.
On the 19th of April, 1 heard a very interesting conversation that the learners had with the teacher at the beginning of the class. She initiated the class by asking them what they were going to do the following weekend. It is important to mention here that the following weekend was Easter, so the conversation the teacher had with the learners was contextualized and the learners were willing to
participate in speaking about their plans. I had already noticed that there were moments in the classes when the learners would speak more naturally, usually when they were invited to speal< about topics of real life.
After the ttiird class was filmed and audio-recorded on the 3rd of May, I realised that the leamers and teacher seemed to speak more in dass at moments when they could share experiences. Learners participated a lot in the beginning of the fourth class as it was a conversation where they could talk about health problems and medicine based on personal experience. In fact, 1 noticed the same occurrence on other days when the teacher would start the class by initiating a conversation with the leamers about their personal experiences.
By analysing briefly the classes throughout the filmings and audio- recordings, 1 verified also that the teacher used some other ways to motivate the leamers to speak more such as encouraging their understanding of English by
saying a few words in Portuguese during explanations or at moments when
something was not clear. This is a strategy that 1 had already noticed during Step 1 of the data collection. I could see that the use of Portuguese by the teacher was reserved for moments when it was really necessary, such as, to clarify words and meanings not easily understood by the learners. The leamers, in general, also were noticed to use Portuguese in class, presenting some of them, a strong resistance against speaking in English. Such resistance or hesitance on the part of the learners required a particular ability on the part of the teacher to reinforce the use of the target language in class.
Although some learners resisted a lot in speaking English, the teacher, for the most part, could get them to speak their sentences. The procedure she used
seemed to vary from learner to learner. When relating to the more timid ones, she would give them more encouragement. At these nnoments, the other leamers In
the class were always called upon to help the classmate if it were needed.
On the 8th of May, I had the opportunity to observe carefully one pair-work and noticed that learners in this pair used some strategies in order to continue speaking in English. The strategies I observed seem similar to the ones leamers
generally used when talking to the teacher. They would ask their own classmates
for words or sentences in English, or would negotiate a topic for conversation with which both would feel confortable. In brief, these learners seemed to use, the same type of oral strategies while working in pairs as learners were observed to use when speaking with the teacher.
Having video-taped and audio-recorded five classes, 1 decided to work primarily with the teacher’s and learners’ oral participation strategies. Thus, from the sixth class on, I decided to focus the filming on the kind of talk that was most interesting for my research: the conversation which usually took place at the beginning of the classes, the explanations of grammar points, and the checking of activities by the teacher and the learners.
2.5.3. Step 3 of data collection: different techniques of data collection used for triangulation
Cançado (1994), defines triangulation as “... o uso de diferentes tipos de corpus, a partir da mesma situação-alvo de pesquisa, com diferentes métodos, e
uma variedade de instrumentos de pesqulsa (p. 57)”®. A great amount of data sources were collected to be used in the triangulation part of this research.
The triangulation in this data collection the following included:
1) some leamers’ written reports answering to the question: “How do you see yourself on the video tapes?” after having watched parts of the tapes filmed; here called “learners’ self-analyses” (See Appendix A 1);
2) an interview recorded on tape with the teacher in which she was invited to answer the same question (See Summary on Appendix A 2);
3) an e-mail sent to me by the teacher that reports the teacher’s writing reflexively about her teaching of her groups of foreign language leaming. The extracts are part of a journal she was exchanging with another PGl student to whom she was temporarily sending her pieces of reflexive writing on her own teaching. (See Appendix A 3);
4) a conversation with the learners recorded on tape about the same question (See Sumnnary in Appendix A 4).
I could see, throughout the data collection process, the improvement some learners had made regarding greater use of English and less reliance on Portuguese. Their confidence in using English was gradually growing and the use of Portuguese was used with less emphasis. Learners showed awareness of their own improvement and their willingness to learn seemed to affect their behaviour
^ Caa9ado’s (1994) quotation could be translated to English as “... the use of dififa*ent types of data, from
the same research situation with dififeait methods, and a variety of research instruments (p. 57)”.
in class. I could understand by the leamers self-analyses (See Appendix A 1), for exanriple, which were used to triangulate the data, that the highly participatory learners in class were generally highly self-motivated and self-conscious of their own performances. But some of the self-analyses showed that there was an influence of affective factors on some learners’ behaviour in class: the less participatory learners were also the ones who confessed to be less self-confident towards speaking English in class.
Another instance provided by the triangulation occurred on the eighth day of data collection, when I also had a talk with the teacher after the class and I mentioned that I felt learners a bit more excited that day, a bit more talkative, open and happy as well. They were all laughing, making jokes and participating orally. The teacher said she had noticed the same as I did and I enjoyed that class very much. According to her, this learners’ behaviour was due to the Role Play or oral test they had presented in class. She said that her impression, based on her experience as a teacher, vfl^s that when the class starts with an oral activity, leamers tend to participate more orally for the rest of the class.
The observations described here were only some of the results of the triangulation observations taken throughout this work. On section 2.5.1, 1 registered other observations regarding the constitution of the “learning community” and the teacher’s expressive way of looking at the learners, respectively.
2.6 Transcription, segmentation and analysis of data
The next phase of the ethnographie work was the transcription and segmentation of data. This phase itself was divided into three major parts: first, the watching of the videos and listening to the tapes recorded; second, the description of the classes in tables in order to identify the activities that generated actual oral participation; and third, the transcription of the examples identified in which there was a great amount of oral participation.
While video-taping the classes, I had already begun to watch the previously recorded videos, and I noticed that some activities in the classes were able to generate more oral participation than others. For this reason, I decided to analyse and classify the types of activities of each class to identify the activities that generated more participation by means of tables (See Appendix B). An example of a table of this type from one class can be seen in Figure 2.
In the tables, I first classified each part of the class into Activity, Participation Pattern and Book Activity. An Activity part refers to the main function fulfilled by the participants and the topic of this talk. By Participation Pattern (Erickson, 1986), I mean the configuration in which the participants interact: either teacher-leamers interaction or pair-work. And by book activity, I refer to a book- based activity or any other extra-activity carried out in class.
Figure 2; Activity Table 7 from 17/04/00
Activity
Warm up - Review Discuss tourist countries Usten to Parts A and B Discuss vocabulary Practice the conversatim Explain “ can and should” Do the written exercise letter A Check written exercise
Write answer to the questions then compare Participation Pattern teacher^eamers teacher-leamers teacher-leamers teachar-ieamers pair-work teacher-leamers teacher-leamers teacher-'leamers pair-woric Book Activity
1 Talking about countries X
2 Snapshot - Talking about X countries with the most tourists
3 Conversation - Giving -
suggestions Parts A
4 Conversation x
5 Conversation
6 Grammar Focus:Modal Verbs X 7 Grammar Focus
8 Grammar Focus X
9 Grammar Focus - Part B
Thus, the tables depict the activities of all the classes observed and video- taped. The activities are rated in the following way: with an (X) when they generate a great amount of oral participation, an (x) vt^en they generate a little amount of oral participation and a (-) vt4ien they generate no participation among the teacher and the learners.
Once the tables were ready, I could have a more definite view of the activities and their impact on the learners’ behaviour in class. Therefore, I could conclude that the three types of activities mentioned before which generated more oral participation were: the beginnings of classes, the grammar explanations and
the checking o f activities. The beginnings of classes were usually comprised of
conversations which the teacher had with the learners about their weekends, holidays, or any particular event that was happening at that time, in the grammar explanations, I not only included the grammar points from the book but also the grammar explanations that the teacher gave from time to time when there were
learners’doubts. Finally, the checking of activities comprised the correction of homework or correction of general activities done in class.
Once i had identified the types of activity that generated more oral participation, I chose 11 samples to be transcribed: 5 samples of “checking of activities", 4 samples of "grammar explanation” and 2 from “beginning of classes”. From those transcriptions I extracted the examples that were good representatives of the oral participation strategies to be used in the discourse
analysis presented in Chapter 3. All in all, when segmenting the data, I was able
to collect 13 Examples of oral participation strategies. However, 9 of these were selected for the analyses (See ^ p e n d ix C).
In the transcription segments, the following aspects were taken into consideration: what was being said, together with major alterations of intonation, and relevant gestures and feelings being expressed at the moment. The transcription conventions are presented below:
Key to transcription conventions
[ overlapping
(( )) analyst’s comments , short pause
+ long pause XXX inaudible
CAPITAL stressed word ? questioning intonation
: sustained sound
St1, 2, 3 ... identified learner St - unidentified learner Sts- learners in chorus
Finally, In order to analyse the data, some segnients of talk from the various moments in ttie classes and from different speakers transcribed, were chosen and the analysis tried to take into consideration the perspective of the subjects observed. The discourse analysis carried out in order to better understand and identify the oral participation strategies in this study was based on Gil, 1999 and Tsui, 1995.
2.7 Summary of the chapter
I began this chapter by talking about how I became interested in the topic of participation strategies and the ethnographic approach. Second, I explained the
changing of my original research questions into my actual ones due to the influence of the context of the data collected. Third, I wrote about the ethnographic approach defining ethnography and discussing its use in this research. Fourth, I presented a description of the classroom context studied. I presented also a description of the steps taken to carry out the ethnographic part of the research. Finally, I depicted the ways in which the data were segmented and provide the transcription conventions that were used. In each step, 1 summarised the main points observed and wrote down the impressions that I had.
In the next chapter, 1 will illustrate, analyse and discuss the main oral participation strategies identified in the teacher’s and the learners’ speech from the data collected.
language classroom
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter 2, I describeci the field work I carried out, mainly the steps 1 followed to collect and segment the data and my observations from a impressionist point of view. The main objective of this chapter is to present the results of the discourse analysis of some segments of the data in order to answer the two following research questions:
f Whai stategies does the teacher use to make learners participate orally
in the EFL classroom?
2 Do all learners make use o f oral participation s&ategies? And if so, what strategies do they use in order to help the teacher establish the socially
constructed event?
While trying to identify the strategies that generated oral participation in English in the classes I observed, I took into account mainly what the teacher and the learners said, how and why they said what they did.
The discourse analysis revealed the following recurrent patterns of oral participation strategies withih the teacher’s and leamers’ speech: questioning,
The following sections will illustrate and describe the oral participation strategies that were identified,
3.2 Questioning
Questioning was the most used strategy to foster oral participation, and
was observed to increase it to a great extent in the English classes studied when there was deliberate use of two different patterns of questioning: direct and
indirect questions. Often, this was observed to be the main strategy used by the
teacher to stimulate speaking in English in this class. Together with this strategy, two others were also utilised; self-repetition by the teacher, and requests for assistance by the teacher for a learner or by the learners themselves in the classes studied. These two last types of strategies will be described and analysed in section 3.3.
3.2.1 Teachei^s and learners’ use of questioning
I will discuss the teacher’s and learners’ use of questioning by illustrating it with two examples; Example 1 and Example 2. While Example 1 exemplifies the
teacher’s and learners’ use of indirect questioning, Example 2 illustrates the teacher’s and the learners’ use of direct questioning.
In Example 1, the topic of the conversation was the Grammar Focus explanation proposed in the leamer’s textbook, thus the teacher’s aim was to teach the learners the use of; so, too, neither, either. The teacher read the
examples and explained briefly how to make an agreement, and then asked an
indirect question to all the learners (lines 5 to 9 below).
Indirect questioning in this study is understood to mean a statement \«^ich
leaves the floor open for the information to be completed by any of the listeners who wish to volunteer an answer. The main identification marker for the learners or the teacher that an indirect question was open is the rising tone of the speaker’s voice at the end of the statement.
The teacher asked the indirect question in line 9, by providing the word: “so” uttered in a rising tone, and one learner (St) answered it (line 10). Immediately afterwards, the teacher made a direct question to the learners in general in order to test their understanding of the grammar point being taught (line 11), and the learners’ answers were quite unclear (line 12).
Example 1
05 T - so, lets take a look at the first, the first example, ok? so you have I like Japanese
06 food a lot, I like, Japanese, food, a lot, so the person is sayii^ something positive in
07 the afiBrmative form yes this is in the aflSrmative form this is positive I like, Japanese
08 food a lot, if the other person is going to agree, what the person can say, ela quer
09 agree, ok? I like Japanese food a lot+ SO?
10 St - do I
11 T - if I say, can I say neither do I here?
12 Sts - no, I do, XXX
At this point in the class, one learner (St1) made a comment in Portuguese that sounded like an indirect question due to the questioning tone in which it was uttered (line 13). Apparently, the learner (St1) wanted a confirmation that he/she had understood well. The teacher then carried out her explanation using another example in the negative form for the learners to complete. At the end of her sentence, the teacher used a special type of intonation again in order to alert the learners that it was time to answer or finish her indirect question (lines 14 and 15). Most of the leamers completed the sentence correctly in chorus (line 16). The teacher then asked another indirect question (line 17) and the learners answered in chorus again (line 18).
13 Stl - ah não a: frase tern que tá na NEGATIVA?
14 T - in the negative so, what is the the frase the sentence that I can have? if I say, I
15 DON’T, LIKE, JAPANESE FOOD, then I can answerf NEITHER?, [DO I
16 Sts -
[do I
17 T - the in the afiSrmative also so do I OR?
18 Sts-I do too
19 T - 1 do, too, and here I can say I don’t LIKE?
20 Sts - 1 don’t either
(From Example 1 - Tape 7 - Activity 7; Grammar explanation -17/05/00)
By working the grammar explanation through direct and indirect questioning, I could perceive that the teacher was able to involve the learners in the explanation. She questioned them while explaining and writing the examples
on the board. They were motivated to participate orally in order to answer the teacher’s direct and indirect questions all the time. The explanation was dynamic and the degree of interaction with the teacher was high. By questioning them from the beginning to the end of the explanation, she kept their attention, and therefore allowed for effective learning.
Example 2 illustrates the learners’ and the teacher’s direct questions. By
direct questioning, it is understood In this study to mean the usual pattern of
questioning where interrogative pronouns and auxiliary verbs are used. In addition, direct questions are generally directed to a singular person, although they were, in the data investigated, sometimes addressed to the entire class.
In Example 2, the leamer (St1) completely out of the blue asked a direct
question to the teacher about a grammar point with which he was in doubt (lines
63 - 65). The teacher answered in one word: “no”, (line 66) and the learner (St1) showed signs of astonishment about her short and abrupt answer (line 67). The teacher then, tried to make the learner (St1) remember the grammar point he was supposed to know at that level, and asked him a direct question about how to formulate the question in the past (line 68). The leamer (St1), however, kept quiet showing he was not certain what the teacher was asking, and the other learners answered the question for him (line 69).
Example 2
63 Stl - teacher? when you use did the verb ah+ não não tem que tá no passado? the verb
64 não tem que tá no passado também a professora falou did you know não seria did you
65 knew?
66 T “ no
67 Stl-no?
68 T - no: + did you you remember this? did you KNOW or KNEW ?
69 Sts-know
(From Tape 2 - Activity 2: Checking of exercise -19/04/00)
The teacher continued to ask more direct questbns of the learner (St1), in order to get correct response from him or perhaps to see if he remembered the previous grammar point (line 70). However, the other learners answered the question for him again (line 71). From lines 72 to 75, the teacher gave a short explanation on how to woric with the simple past, and asked him another direct
question but again the other learners answered the question in line 76. In line 77,
the teacher carried out the simple past explanation and questioned again, getting an answer from many leamers in the class (line 78).
70 T - did you SEE or SAW?
71 Sts - see
72 T - see, no; + because you have the auxiliar, this indicates that your question is talk
73 you are talking about the past ok? but I ask you did you see ah the movie? , did you
74 see the movie, last weekend? yes, I did, I saw+, ok? here you have the declarative form
75 and if you want to say não eu não vi, como é que seria?
76 Sts - 1 didn’t
77 T - no I didn’t se eu quiser colocar o verbo?
78 Sts - bota see
79 T - see ok?, Feiipe remember that? nao não lembra disso?
80 Stl - [não não aprendi isso
81 St2 * [ele faltou na aula
82 Stl -
[mas agora+ aprendi
(From Example 2 - Tape 2 - Activity 2; Checking of exercise -19/04/00)
Finally, in line 79, the teacher asked the learner (S tl) directly in Portuguese if he remembered the use of the Grammar in Focus, and he confessed he had never studied the simple past before (line 80). Then, he stated, in line 82, that he had learnt it after the explanation. This Example is an excellent illustration of how important the direct questioning strategy was in this class: how it contributed to make the learners more involved in the explanation, and how it made them increase their oral participation by contributing spontaneously with their answers, which creates as a result a more relaxed atmosphere.
3.3 Requests for assistance from the teacher and self-repetitions
There were moments when the teacher asked the class to help the learner
on the spot. This help provided the learner the support he needed in terms of
language and in terms of emotional confidence necessary to be able to carry on speaking in English. The learner then, would feel more confident in a warmer and more friendly atmosphere.
The self-repetitton of questions and statements by the teacher was a way noticed to help the learners in class. Tsui (1995) defined the term self-repetition
to refer to all instarn^es where the speaker repeats v\^at he/she has said previously, whether it Is an exact repetition or a repetition in which modifications are made (p. 68)”. In the Example below, while the teacher was explaining the grammar point, she kept repeating her own questions in an attempt to clarify and perhaps to keep the learners’ attention during the explanation (lines 87 - 90).
Example 3
87 T - ok the other exan^)le now, should I go to the palace of fine arts? should I go to the
88 pala to the palace of fine arts? se a pessoa tá perguntando isso ela tá pedindo uma
89 sugestão tua, olha só should I go to the city? should I visit the sea? should I visit
90 beira mar shopping?
(From Tape 1 - Activity 6: Grammar explanation -17/04/00)
In line 91, there was a "yes” response from one learner St to the teacher’s question, then the teacher tried to give another example but she had run out of ideas. At that moment, she made use of the request strategy to ask for other
learners’ help (lines 92 and 93). This appeal for help from the learners sounded
funny to them and made them laugh (line 94). From that moment on, the learners were motivated to help the teacher, offering more examples in order to help her clarify the grammar topic she was explaining. One leamer (S tl) suggested visiting Anhatomirim^ and the teacher took advantage of the interesting suggestion to develop a long talk involving many learners (lines 99 -122).
